The reaction with the book, Christian Jihad, was that of anger, astonishment and sadness; all tying into the fact that it was reality. One would have never guessed that Christians would actually commit such a crime, let alone the amount that they committed. What made them come to the conclusion that killing was the right answer? The Christians acted as if they were the ones who were in charge of judging the world. Who gave them the authority? The realization of how judgmental and prideful the opinion of the Christian world was by the secular eye comes into play by reading this book. Overall, the authors were able to give an accurate account of the Christian era within the first two thousand years.
At the start of the book, the authors Ergun and Emir Caner, openly speak about a man who waited a long time, training both mentally and spiritually, for one particular day. At first the reader believes that it was a Muslim who trained all his life to be a terrorist. As the words continue on in the book, the authors slowly reveals that the person being described is actually a professed Christian. The shock of what has just been written is almost unbearable. The man they described waited all his life to kill an abortion doctor. However, with the creative words that the authors used, it made one re-read the word Christian, just to make sure that the word was correct. The story however, opens the readers mind to the realization of actual Christian jihads, which increases as the book goes along.
As the book continues on, the thoughts and emotion of the reader begin to increase with the awareness of the corruption between church and state. In chapter three, the conversation continues with the previous chapter about the unholy marriage. By learning about how Emperor Constantine combined both church and state, the text slowly reveals how his decisions lead to the corruption of the Christian witness. The hearts of Christians slowly became corrupted with the thoughts that they had the right to judge the sins of men, that somehow God gave them this authority. Their stupid actions and decisions continued to spread as the authors continued to record the events.
Up to chapter six, the transition from the murder of the doctor increases to the First Crusade. Through the chapters the emotions of the reader amplify with the lack of common sense in the Christians. Their ideas that the army should be gathered under the emblem of the cross, sanctified by the pope, and the soldier’s eternal salvation guaranteed by serving in the army showed how the foolishness of men can corrupt the witness of Christians. The Caner brothers show also how the persecution of the early Christians was so evident, which is probably why the early church fathers denied that violence should not be connected with Christians.
As the book goes on, the anger, astonishment, and sadness that continues to magnify is bluntly shown as both Caners carry on the Christian Jihad. Just as a book that one might pick up in a book store, where the drama increases to the point of a climax ending with some destruction, Christian Jihad shows similar qualities. Starting off slow, the stories gradually increase, drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the detestable events that happened, growing into a mass slaughter. By the end of the book the author draws the emotions of the readers to completion by showing an apology from Christians to the world because of the crusades that happened almost nine hundred years before.